Tag Archive for David Wright

Always a bummer when one of your key guys breaks his back, but what’s Jason Bay’s excuse? His failure to put the ball in play last night loomed large in a revolting 2-1 extra inning home loss to the Marlins last night that was followed by the announcement that two additional culprits — noodle-batted reserve infielder Chin-lung Hu, and hopeless relief hack Ryota Igarashi — would be headed to Class AAA Buffalo. I know it’s impossible and counterproductive, but I’d send Bay there with them just to punish him. In a bus.

Recalled to take the places of Hu and Igarshi are Ruben Tejada and Pedro Beato, respectively. Tejada was with the Mets last season assigned No. 11; Beato will retake the No. 27 he wore earlier this year.

As for David Wright, he has a broken back requiring at least a few weeks of rest. Met officials say it’s likely he’ll hit the disabled list today and be replaced on the roster by perpetual tourist Nick Evans and his trusty No. 6 jersey.

Bonus for the first commenter to recognize the obscure headline reference!

While fans licked their wounds, Jeff Wilpon slandered other teams’ medical staffs and the writers commissioned sculptures of Derek Jeter, not one but two round-number milestones in Met history were toppled in the same week, and nobody even noticed.

Until now.

Congratulations to Carlos Beltran and David Wright. Your acts of tepid batsmanship as the season ground to a forgettable close resulted in the 3,000th all-time Mets hit for each of your respective uniform numbers. And your pursuit of this glory in the season’s final week made for a thrilling down-to-the-wire chase that went similarly unremarked upon.

Beltran reached the magic number Sept. 25 in Florida, when his single off Ricky Nolasco marked the 3,000th all-time safety for the No. 15 jersey. Three nights later in Washington, Wright rapped a double to right field off Ross Detwiler, marking hit No. 3000 for the No. 5s.

Wright then proceeded to out-hit his teammate 6-to-5 over the final four games, leaving No. 5 ahead of 15 by a single hit, 3,006-3,005.

So, Tim Redding? Wore No. 17 in Washington last season, but as the kind of guy destined to surrender the No. 5 starter duties at some point, I’m not sure he has the juice to dictate his own digit. I suppoose its possible now that Fernando Tatis does, if for some reason he’d prefer something other than 17, but that’s speculation we’re going to have to wait until spring training to test.

Welcome Abordick, Tim.

Once again, the Mystery Men:

Cherry

Green

Kunz/Knight (they both most recently wore No. 44)

O’Day

Putz/H. Johnson (Putz posed in 40, but as yet isn;t listed as such on the official roster

Leaving aside for a second the idiotic debate over whether Wright’s “around the corner” hitting streak should “count”– the correct answer is, of course it should – and the larger question as to whether random counting records like this are important – they’re not – it does provide an example to muse briefly on the men who set the records.

It’s easy to associate David Wright with Hubie Brooks. Both were organization-bred third basemen wearing single-digit uniform numbers. And at the time they set hitting streaks each would be considered “answers” for the organization’s storied struggle to find third basemen. That story today is more like a legend seeing as since Brooks (Johnson, Ventura, Wright) third base has been a position of strength for the Mets.

Pedro Martinez hit the disabled list for the second time this year, and for the fourth time, the Mets have recalled Heath Bell from Norfolk, helping the Mets turn this into their worst road trip since the Boston debacle in late June. With Carlos Delgado 21 radically slumping, David Wright 5transforming into a singles hitter, and Lastings Milledge 44 looking every bit the rookie he is, this could get worse before it gets better. And that’s why God created 12-game leads.

Thanks to Met number genius Ed for pointing out the comment below on Jae Seo’s “outrageous”No. 98 in Tampa had a precedent: Seo, Ed writes, wore 98 as a Met spring training hopeful in 1998.

Props also to the reader who pointed out our math below on Ed Kranepool’s tenure in No. 7 was inaccurate: Krane was 21 for his first two seasons with the Mets, and so occupied 7 for 15 years, not 17.

The new contract signed by David Wright last week all but assures he’ll become the longest tenured No. 5 in team history, surpassing Steve Henderson — unless he’s also traded to the Cubs for Dave Kingman.Meanwhile, Jose Reyes, who signed a four-year deal last week, still has a long, long way to go to catch Ed Kranepool’s 17 years of service in the No. 7 jersey.

Henderson by the way leads all No. 5s in games (497) as well as seasons (4) and narrowly edges Olerud in all-time plate appearances 2,029 to 2,018. Wright is on pace to surpass those marks sometime in 2007.